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still more space, and to an arrogance built upon the possession, already, of so much. Few will deny that these are characteristics of the present day, or that they have grown more prominent year by year. If we examine the manner of their growth, we think they may be clearly traced to their source, in the magnitude of the Union.

In the early days of the history of the United States, this principle of exaggeration had no existence. At that time, each man's country was the former colony in which he lived, now transformed into the State, of which he had become a citizen. His views were bounded by an horizon within moderate distance. It never entered into his mind to threaten all the rest of the world. Throughout the documents of that period there runs a vein of calm, good sense-a disposition to deal with facts temperately and truly, as they really existed. The age of declamation had not yet come.

The rapid growth of the Union has distorted all this. The horizon has become illimitable; the moderate standard has stretched into immeasurable space. Views that were adapted to the dimensions of a kingdom, have expanded to those of a continent. As State was added after State, the growth of these views became more rapid and indefinite, until it seemed impossible to assume any dimensions, too large for another year quite to equal in reality. It became a habit, to exaggerate all present things, to keep pace with a future so constantly expanding. A statement that agreed with the facts to-day,

would be behind them to-morrow; it might be better to make it, at once, large enough to last. Thus, to avoid constant inconvenience, truth came to be made expansive. This spirit of exaggeration, taking at times the form of a very quaint and original humour, is then indeed harmless enough, but largely incorporated, as it has been, into the very essence of the national character, its effects could not fail to be highly prejudicial. We shall find it pervading not only statements and belief, but the whole tone of thought and sentiment.

Exaggeration must needs be a departure from

truth.

When an exaggerated standard is once adopted, truth must be altered up to it, history must be made to conform with it. A great dominion must have a great people, and a great people must have a great history; and if there be no such history in real existence, it must be made great. Hildreth, the most able of American historians, thus describes the cause of his unpopularity: "In dealing with our Revolutionary annals, a great difficulty had to be encountered in the mythic, heroic character above, beyond, often wholly apart from, the truth of history, with which, in the popular idea, the fathers and founders of our American Republic have been invested. American literature having been mainly of the rhetorical cast, and the Revolution and the old time of the forefathers, forming standing subjects for periodical eulogies, in which every new orator strives to outvie his predecessors, the true history

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of those times, in spite of ample records, illustrated by the labours of many diligent and conscientious inquirers, has yet been almost obliterated by declamations, which confound all discrimination and just appreciation, in one confused glare of patriotic eulogium."

Here, then, we find it the established practice of the country, in the face of ample records of the facts, wilfully to pervert its own history, in order to satisfy this desire for exaggeration. It is not easy to imagine a more deplorable spectacle, than that of a people thus employed in self-deception, receiving their knowledge, and forming their opinions, on the exaggerations of declaimers, each striving, in this manner, to "outvie his predecessors" in departure from truth. Miss Martineau, than whom no more favourable witness could be found, describes one of these fourth of July orations, and its effect on her own mind. The anniversary seems to be a kind of saturnalia, dedicated to the annual worship of the god-Self. Unaccountable it is, indeed, how respectable men can be found, who will descend to this kind of performance; or how a people, so shrewd in other respects, can be assailed with such fulsome flattery, without detecting its real mockery.

And this perversion of history, is by no means confined to the glorifications of each fourth of July. The virus of its influence is inoculated into the system in early youth. The school-books of the boy have been formed on this rule of exag

geration. Poor old George the Third is painted as a devouring tyrant; the German troops as demons in human form; every petty skirmish is exalted into a battle; every battle into a victory; even defeats so unquestionable as that of Bunker's Hill, are made to wear the colour of a triumph; the part of France is made as small, as ours was described in laying the Atlantic cable; every citizen but Arnold, shines out a pure patriot; every general a hero-the whole is a triumphal procession, and ends in a blaze of glory. Let us contrast with this, a sentence of the real truth, from one of Washington's letters, whose authority none will dispute.

He speaks thus, in a letter to Read: "Such dearth of public spirit, and such want of virtue; such stock-jobbing, and fertility in all the low arts to obtain advantage of one kind or another, in this change of military arrangements, I never saw before, and I pray God's mercy that I may never be witness to again. I tremble at the prospect. * * * Such a mercenary spirit pervades the whole, that I should not be surprised at any disaster that may happen. Could I have foreseen what I have experienced, and am likely to experience, no consideration on earth should have induced me to accept this command." Those who have studied the history of the Revolutionary war,

of the real facts, and this, not as narrated by ourselves, but by American historians-well know the truth of this picture. And here a question is

forced upon the mind. If this were the staple of much of the patriotism, at the period most certain to call it into existence, what measure of reliance can be safely placed, on much of that, called by the same name at the present day?

This spirit of exaggeration, thus resulting from the rapid growth of the Union, leads naturally to the boastfulness and national self-esteem which have become so prominent. Long ago, De Tocqueville observed: "For the last fifty years no pains have been spared, to convince the inhabitants of the United States, that they constitute the only religious, enlightened, and free people. They perceive, that for the present, their own democratic institutions succeed, whilst those of other countries fail; hence they conceive an overwhelming opinion of their superiority, and they are not very remote from believing themselves, to belong to a distinct race of mankind." Much of this is certainly the simple result of geographical position. Those who are remote from Europe, cannot be blamed for an imperfect idea of the strength and resources of the great powers. To the citizen of Illinois, who may travel for a thousand miles in many directions, without reaching the limits of the Union, who is conscious of his own strength, and buoyant in his own prosperity, it will be very natural to believe it, when taught that he belongs to the greatest power on earth-victorious by land and sea, heroic and triumphant, that other countries are but specks upon the map, and in

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